DECEMBER 215 



humour. Popularly it was believed to be Mr. Ayrton, 

 who was not only more mercilessly satirised in the 

 play than either of his colleagues, but also had 

 outraged public feeling, if not public taste, by certain 

 of his administrative acts as sedile ; notably by covering 

 with grey paint some of the fine stone-work in the 

 lobbies of the Houses of Parliament. All that I 

 remember of the libretto of The Happy Land is that, 

 whereas in the first act the scenery of Paradise was 

 glowing with rainbow radiance and shimmering with 

 gems, in the second act it had undergone treatment 

 on Ayrton principles everything had been painted 

 ' government grey.' 



All this was brought to mind by the change wrought 

 upon the appearance of the British Army after the 

 outbreak of the South African War in 1899. By a 

 wave of his wand or as a wand is not one of the 

 insignia of his office by a scratch of his pen, the 

 Secretary of State for War, Mr. St. John Brodrick (now 

 Earl Midleton), quenched all gay colour in the field 

 dress of our troops : the historic thin red line was to be 

 seen no more ; the glittering squadrons were doomed to 

 ride in raiment as dull as the dust of their own raising ; 

 henceforward, standards and colours were to be sent 

 into store before the regiments went on active service. 



Had that been all, it would have sufficed to mark a 

 notable era in the operations of war a wise measure, 

 imposed upon the Army Council by the vast improve- 

 ment in the range, trajectory, and precision of artillery 

 and small-arms. Hitherto it had been the object of 

 the military authorities of all nations to make their 



